Navy bean growers fear industry ruin if SPC Ardmona factory winds up

The major Australian supplier of navy beans, the main ingredient in baked beans, says the local industry, which began during World War II, would not survive if SPC Ardmona shuts down its Victorian cannery.

"The reality is that the navy bean industry would close ... would finish," Bean Growers Australia managing director Lloyd Neilsen said.

Speculation about the future of the fruit and vegetable processor has been fuelled by this week's announcement that the Federal Government will not help fund an upgrade of SPC Ardmona's old factory and the company's poor financial performance in recent years.

"In 2011 and 2012 we bought $100 million worth of stock and wrote it off, so two massive losses," SPC's managing director Peter Kelly said.

"And an operating loss this year (2013) - so it's a severe problem."

SPC Ardmona employs up to 1,200 people at the Shepparton plant at peak season.

While packaging fruit is the main part of the business, it is also the only baked bean cannery in the country and processes almost all of Australia's locally grown navy beans.

A matter of national security

Navy beans were first grown in Australia near Kingaroy, in Queensland, during World War II.

"There was a lot of American troops in Australia, servicemen, and part of their staple diet was baked beans," third generation grower Gary Truss said.

"So somebody had the idea well we should try and grow them here."

The US army provided the seed, the federal government contracted growers, and production was controlled under the National Security Act.

While the first crop was ploughed back into the soil because farmers did not know how to harvest it, it did not take long for the industry to expand, with more than 100 growers in Queensland by the mid-1940s.

A history of navy bean production

Australia's navy bean industry is tiny compared to the world's biggest producers, the US and Canada, which together average more than 250,000 tonnes a year.

At its peak, the local industry produced around 9,000 tonnes, but drought and the loss of major buyer Heinz in the 1990s have seen annual production shrink to around 3,000 tonnes.

Bean Growers Australia, a former farmers cooperative turned company, has been at the heart of the industry for 50 years.